I don’t search for my daughter in Deepika: Amitabh Bachchan on 'Piku'

You have been playing varied roles in recent years. Does your age help you choose such characters?
Yes, when you are 73, these are the only things you can do. It’s a fact because as much as I would like to play a leading man to Deepika Padukone, it will not happen! I am not young anymore. You need to be happy and satisfied with what you get.

Your character in the film is totally dependent on Piku, whereas you are quite active in real life. But were there any aspects of Baba that you could relate to? 
I am someone who does not mix my real life with my reel life. So the character I play is solely Shoojit’s brainchild. They write the character and I just enact them. I do not search for myself in the characters. I feel that's not professional. When the writer has written things in a certain way and the director perceives it in his way, thinking about my beliefs of the character can happen only before the shoot. Once on set, you cannot do that.

I don’t think I identify with any of the characters I play. There’s a reason behind this too. In the 45 years that I have been working, I have died 10-12 times. Now, how would I show death, when I am not dead yet? Secondly, when we enact sequences of the death of a near and dear one, how do we portray the exact emotions? For example, when my mother dies on screen, do we bring our personal self to that? We don’t think that when my mother dies, I will be like this. I cannot think like that. But let us suppose I did. I may have voluntarily or deliberately exposed all my emotions for the death of an onscreen mother five times. But when my mother passed away, I don’t know if the emotions I portrayed then in reality was actually connected to those onscreen performances. It's a dilemma which remains with all actors. That’s why I feel a lot of actors today are very sensitive and take recourse in drug abuse or alcohol to do such scenes. Who knows, they might need that to go through situations which, god forbid, all of us have to go through sometime in life.

Piku revolves around the relationship between a father and his daughter. How has your relationship been with your daughter Shweta?
As I said earlier, this is just a role I am enacting. To me, my personal space and my professional space are absolutely different. I don’t search for my daughter in Deepika. She doesn’t look for her father in me. But she will search for Baba and I will search for Piku. These are questions that are often asked but I don’t know how to answer it.

Did your stay in Kolkata help you enact the character of Baba?
Yeah. I lived in Kolkata for seven years after my university studies got over. I had my first job there and those were some of the most exciting years of my life. Obviously, a lot of the city remains and a lot of it has washed away with time. The director, the atmosphere on the sets of Piku was very Bengali. We were playing a Bangali family, we were shooting in Bengal, so obviously it makes a lot of difference. You just imbibe what is natural and so it comes out quite naturally. Also, I have a Bengali at home.

What about cycling on the streets of Kolkata. Did that bring back fond memories?
Kolkata streets! I love them. The audience there is very well behaved and they are very passionate people, irrespective of what they do. Whether it’s art, literature or cinema, Bengalis are probably the most passionate about their culture. They will come and cheer you, which is wonderful. I keep telling everyone that whenever you are feeling down, just go to Kolkata. It will raise your spirits.

You are possibly the biggest superstar, does anything intimidate you today?
Every day! I am intimidated almost every day. What will I do in front of Deepika or Irrfan? Will I be able to say my lines correctly? But with Piku, something which was really good was we forced Shoojit to make sure we spend some days together, on the sets, just rehearsing. So we used to come, rehearse our scenes and pack up. So later, we could finish the scene in no time. 

Do you plan your life or take one day at a time?
I don’t plan anything in my life. At 73, you tend to lose ambition and vision in life. Badi niras si zindagi hai meri.

We heard you were not keeping well..
Yeah, I also heard that (chuckles in sarcasm). I was in this MRI tunnel and I got the news. No, I am perfectly fine, but because of my history, I keep going for regular check ups. I am 73 and it’s recommended to do all the tests. So that became a huge thing.